July 3, 2015

No photo? No problem! - The Ding-A-Ling Lady

A few weeks ago I won a giveaway (a $25 gift certificate to the A Cherry on Top scrapbook shop) generously provided by Gretchen Henninger. She has a wonderful blog, The Stamping Rooster, where she shares her layouts and some great sketches. One of the items I selected from the shop was this 12x12 sheet of chipboard accents from Crate Paper's Poolside Collection:

As soon as I saw that cute ice cream truck in the upper left corner, I knew that it would find a home on a layout about the ice cream truck that came through my childhood neighborhood. I added the chipboard sheet to my "Endless Summer" CKC kit for July with the intention to make that layout this month.

Now while I do have photos from my childhood, I don't have one that was a good fit for the topic of my layout. But the lack of a photo doesn't stop me from telling a story! Armed with the chipboard truck and a few more pieces from my kit, I put together this page:

I cut a small strip of the chevron paper and placed it behind the truck to make it appear to be moving across the top of my page. I added die cut stars and some shimmery translucent hearts (not included in my kit) as a little whimsical cloud coming from the back of the truck. After all, isn't an ice cream truck such a magical vehicle when you're a kid (and even when you're an adult)?

The tag on the lower left is also from the Poolside Collection. It actually has a small ice cream cone design right in the center but it seemed a little small so I covered it with the identical ice cream cone from the chipboard sheet and added the popsicle too.

To balance the little bits of gold on the chipboard, I used gold and white Thickers for the main part of my title. I still had plenty of room on the page for my story. I usually draw lines when I'm including more than a couple of sentences of journaling just to keep my paragraph looking a bit neater. After I placed a trio of hearts in a couple more places, I adhered the entire page to white cardstock to frame the layout.

Don't let the lack of a photo keep you from sharing your story. Your words, along with a few special embellishments, can create a great page to record an important memory.